Govt to fill nursing vacancies

Ridma Dissanayake

All science stream students passing the GCE Advanced Level Examination held this year but failed to gain admission to universities will be recruited to the nursing service according to a directive by Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena.

According to a Health Ministry spokesman there are only 24,000 nurses serving in the country's health sector although the need is for 48,000 nurses to meet the full the demand.

Accordingly, there is a requirement of another 24,000 nurses to fill the vacancies in the nursing service.

Due to this Minister Sirisena has decided to recruit more students to Nurses' Training Schools, following which the largest group of nurses will be absorbed to the health sector.